


Of puppets and emotions

by silverseed



Category: Naruto
Genre: Badly-Socialized Child Is Baffled By The Depiction Of Relationships In Fiction, Brothers Go See A Theatre Performance, Gen, That's it, The Whole Thing Is A Set-Up For An Immature Joke, that's the story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-20
Updated: 2018-07-20
Packaged: 2019-06-13 13:56:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15366129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silverseed/pseuds/silverseed
Summary: Gaara goes to the puppet theatre with his brother, and discovers that there are some types of love he definetely doesn't understand





	Of puppets and emotions

The day had gone well, at least from Kankurou's point of view. He had seen a good play in the Suna Puppet Theatre, his favourite puppeteers were performing, and he got to spend the day with his little brother without fearing for his life. The rest of the audience would probably beg to disagree if they hadn't run in terror the second Gaara step foot inside.

But, really, all in all things had gone pretty nicely. Gaara watched the show in silence and clapped politely at the end, and he didn't threaten to kill anybody or demanded blood, not even at the end of the play when the two lovers died together. He had been a little worried about that bit, especially with the whole "death is worth it" talk that went on in the end, but Gaara kept watching impassively, apparentely not minding his brother's not-so-subtle apprehension.

Kankurou was already congratulating himself for the idea of taking his brother with him now that Konoha seemed to have miraculously cured his homicidal tendencies, when Gaara talked.

"There are... some things I didn't understand."

Kankurou blinked and looked at his brother, who had stopped suddenly in the middle of the road -not that anyone would have come close to them, let alone bumped into him. He was looking at him with his usual serious face, but years of practice at reading his little brother's emotions told him that he was actually interested. Already picturing the both of them going to more plays and talking about the finesse of the technique and the poetry of the stories (and already picturing and ignoring his sister's horror at having another "puppet nerd", like she called it, on the family), he answered

"Of course! The puppet theatre has a lot of subtle details that may escape begginers. Tell me, what is it you wanted to know? Do you have questions about the technique? The folklore of the story? The symbolism of the scenery? The..." Kankurou stopped his rant at his little brother's overwhelmed and a little freaked out expression and backtracked  "Er... Right, sorry. So what was it?"

"Well, nothing so... specific. It's just..."

Kankurou noted his little brother's discomfort and nodded encouragingly, partially because he knew that having a normal conversation would be an important thing to experience for Gaara and partially because he hadn't given up on hooking him to puppet theatre.

"Why would they die just because they couldn't be together?"

"Well, they loved each other very much, and not being able to be together caused them pain." He could have gone on for hours with the poetry about love of the story, but he had the feeling that the simple explanation would work better than a long tirade. When dealing with Gaara, baby steps was the best option. Gaara nodded thoughtfully.

"But they had other precious people. The woman's sister... The man's father and friend... Why would they die of loneliness just because of one person? Was the other people's love not enough?"

"It's not that, they were simply so in love that not being with each other seemed unbearable."

"But... why? What is the difference with the love they already received from their family?"

Kankurou opened his mouth to answer, then closed it when the pieces of what Gaara was really asking clicked together. His face went pale as a sheet, face paint included, and his eyes bulged out in an expression of absolute horror. Gaara noticed and tried look as non-threatening as possible, wracking his brain for anything he may have said or done to scare his brother like that, even though he really couldn't think of a reason. Said brother didn't notice, though, still shell-shocked and feeling as if he was going to faint, a single semi-histerical thought repeating itself over and over again on his mind.

_"Oh my God, I have to give him The Talk!!"_

 


End file.
